By Lucy Ashton
Dumbarton’s MSP has taken a fresh swipe at the Scottish Government’s NHS failings, saying: “ It may be a new year, but nothing has changed”.
She also revealed that a crucial NHS worker, who lives in Renton, has waited three years for joint surgery, while she helps other patients receive their procedures.
Dame Jackie Baillie blasted the SNP’s record on healthcare and their failing blueprint for NHS Recovery in the wake of the Covid pandemic, during a debate in Holyrood on Wednesday.
The veteran politician, Scottish Labour’s Spokesperson for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care, revealed in the chamber how the 52-year-old resident has waited three years for knee replacement, despite helping patients who have been waiting less than a year to receive surgery.
The frontline worker suffers excruciating pain during ten-hour shifts in theatres at Clydebank’s Golden Jubilee National Hospital.
She has twice been offered pre-op assessment appointments during her three-year spell on the waiting list but has yet to have the procedure carried out.
The woman now suffers bone-on-bone pain as she helps patients receiving the surgery she awaits.
Jackie raised the experiences of her constituent during the Scottish Labour debate on Ending Long NHS Waits in Holyrood.
She raised the motion, telling MSPs: “It may be a new year, but nothing has changed.”
Dame Jackie added: “Scotland saw in the new year with Accident and Emergency Departments in utter disarray as thousands of people – the sick; the injured, those needing medical intervention – experiencing long and dangerous waits.”
The politician also blasted A&E data on four hour waits and added: “The crisis in NHS and social care continues. And the SNP’s response: nothing to see here.
“In fact, it has been business as usual from the SNP and the NHS and its hardworking staff remain at breaking point.”
She also pointed out the shortcomings in the Scottish Government’s vow to remobilise the NHS following Covid and Humza Yousaf’s vow to eliminate the longest waits in planned care.
Dame Jackie also unveiled a list of missed targets, including the SNP’s failed pledges:
– to eliminate two year waits for out-patient procedures by the end of August 2022
– to eliminate 18 month waits for patients by the end of December 2022
– to eliminate one year waits for out-patient procedures by the end of March 2023
– to eliminate in-patient / day case waits of two years by the end of September 2022
– to eliminate waits of 18 months for in-patient / day cases by the end of September 2023
And she called into doubt whether they can still make their stated objective of decreasing waits for in-patient /day cases in most specialities by the end of September 2024.
Data also shows that 12.9 per cent fewer operations planned than in the same period in 2019 before the pandemic.
Some 582 patients had their operations cancelled at a day’s notice due to capacity or non-clinical reasons in November alone.
Dame Jackie added: “I know they don’t like hearing it, but the facts are plain for everyone to see: they promised to end long waits and they’ve failed utterly.
“I repeat – we have almost one in six Scots waiting on tests and treatment. I know they want to blame the pandemic but it’s time to bring some reality to this debate. Look at what’s happening in hospitals now.”